Chapter 1071: Chapter 1071

Standing in the sparse woods, Lin Chichi looked down at the blood stains splattered on the grass leaves to her right, and at the varying depth of footprints leading into the depths of the night.

She was about to pursue further, but hesitated as she lifted her foot.

Then she raised her head to glance at the large tree swaying in the night wind to her left.

She lightly leapt up, landing on the treetop of a large tree, looked around, and then reached out to pluck a leaf.

A few bloodstains were smeared on this leaf.

Seeing the blood-stained leaf, she let out a slight sigh of relief, then turned her gaze deeper into the forest, leaping among the tree branches to chase further in.

At first, her movements were not smooth, nearly falling from the tree several times, almost breaking branches with her forceful leaps.

However, with the power control techniques she learned from He Ao, she gradually mastered the skill and swiftly maneuvered forward along the trail of bloodstains.

Soon, a small wooden cabin with lights on came into her field of view.

The roaring generator was operating in one corner of the cabin.

The red-bearded man was standing at the cabin door, scanning his surroundings before knocking on the bulky wooden door.

Lin Chichi descended branch by branch to the lowest ones and then lightly jumped down to the ground, rolling to dissipate the impact, her petite body hidden among the grass in front of the cabin.

Accompanied by thumps like boulders hitting the ground, the cabin door opened, revealing a figure like a mountain of flesh under the dim lighting.

The flesh mountain peered at the red-bearded man outside, noticing the blood on him and frowning slightly, "Where are the others?"

The red-bearded man spat out, "Your intel was wrong, that Central Earth woman knows some kind of secret technique and can exert C-level strength. Most of our guys were taken out by her, some might still be alive, not sure if they’ve been captured."

"You didn’t bring back a single person?"

The flesh mountain man furrowed his brows and asked hoarsely.

"Look at the state of me,"

The red-bearded man pointed to his neck that he was clutching with his hand, and the blood-stained palm, "I’m lucky to be alive, and you told me that chick was a little lamb, turns out she’s tougher than a rhino, I almost died there."

"You were injured and ran back here? Is there a tail behind you?"

The flesh mountain man’s brows were tightly furrowed as he spoke hoarsely.

"No, in that team, other than that Central Earth woman, there’s just an ordinary D-level guy, a bit on the weaker side, this intel is solid. They wouldn’t dare to follow, I’ve injured that Central Earth woman and she’s probably hiding to heal up now."

The red-bearded man looked back over his shoulder.

Lin Chichi immediately and carefully shrank her body a little.

The red-bearded man withdrew his gaze, looking at the flesh mountain man again, "I used a little trick midway, even if they were to follow, they would have been led astray."

As he spoke, he spat out again, "We shouldn’t have messed with that He Ao, the guy has risen too fast, famous throughout Heaven in just a month or two, he probably has some secret or fortune, and the people around him are one tougher than the next."

"What’s done is done,"

The flesh mountain man moved aside slightly and snorted coldly, "Considering what you’ve done around here, with your blood debts, do you think he’ll let you off? That kind of person can’t get along with us and if you could abide by the rules, you would have gone to Hu Wen instead, not coming to me. We’re in the same boat now."

The red-bearded man sneered and squeezed into the room through the doorway opened by the flesh mountain man.

The flesh mountain man looked up at the forest outside the door and stretched out his hand to close the wooden door.

The heavy footsteps sounded again, growing fainter, seeming to get further away.

Lin Chichi peeked out, ready to approach the house, but just in that moment, she felt some invisible energy brush past her thoughts.

Bone spikes splattered out from the door, covering the area in front of it.

The closed wooden door was suddenly pulled open, and the flesh mountain man still stood at the doorway, looking up at the darkness outside and shouted, "I see you, come out!"

The deep and empty woods echoed with the robust words of the flesh mountain man.

Hiding in the darkness, Lin Chichi tensed up.

After a while, when no reply came, the flesh mountain man glanced around briefly and slowly closed the door.

Waiting until the footsteps had gone once more.

Lin Chichi touched the cold sweat on her forehead and took a deep breath.

If it weren’t for that breath disturbing her thoughts just now, she would have stepped out.

And if that had happened, she might not have made it out alive today.

This world, it turned out to be even more dangerous than she had anticipated.

Monsters are easy to kill, but human hearts are unfathomable.

Brother Hao Yi must have encountered many more dangers than this to achieve what he did.

She looked up at the sky, gazing at the myriad stars and the bright moon, and took a deep breath.

She shifted her gaze back to the wooden hut in front of her.

Was that just now a fluke, or some kind of ’blessing’?

She knew that Divine Beings were watching her.

But she also knew that Divine Beings couldn’t protect her forever, they might not even favor her continuously.

To grow stronger, she still had to improve herself.

This time, she waited quite a while until the footsteps faded before cautiously circling around the wooden hut to its rear.

There was no door here, just a tightly closed window.

Lin Chichi cautiously approached it.

"I’ve told you before, there’s no one at the back, yet you wouldn’t believe it."

The mocking voice of a man with a red beard came from inside the hut, "Since when did you become so suspicious?"

"Being careful is never wrong."

The robust voice of the flesh mountain man followed.

"So what are you planning to do next?"

The red-bearded man spoke softly,

"The reinforcements sent by He Ao will probably arrive here soon, and once they enter that fortress you mentioned in the intelligence report, we probably won’t be able to take it down with brute force for a while. Those captured will eventually talk; do you still plan to carry out your silencing plan?"

The flesh mountain man said hoarsely.

"To me, we should just make a run for it now," the red-bearded man quickly interjected, "There’s no need for us to stick around in the Trok Republic. If we head east, lay low, the two of us at C-level brandishing Daybreak’s flag can return to our old trade, there will always be people who’ll join us. In a few years, we’ll have a new group of people under us again."

"And just abandon everything we’ve built here for so long?"

The flesh mountain man’s hoarse voice inquired.

"Our remaining men are few, and we cannot hold on to the stuff here anyway."

The red-bearded man spoke rapidly.

"If you hadn’t squandered all our manpower," the flesh mountain man said coldly, "we wouldn’t have come to this pass."

"If you hadn’t insisted on partnering with the Rong Guang Society, looking to provide them with Human Sacrifice," retaliated the red-bearded man in a cold voice, "I wouldn’t have gotten involved nor been this seriously injured."

Saying so, he seemed to spit on the ground,

"Frankly, ever since you started cooperating with the Rong Guang Society, I feel you have changed, becoming unduly cautious and hesitant.

"We’ve been on the run for so many years, who can we afford to provoke and who can’t we? Don’t you have a clue? That He Ao, not only is he working for the World Tree now, but he hasn’t even discarded his identity from the Research Institute.

"You can fight off his subordinates, even threaten him, but can you threaten that Old Geezer Rudel? Can you threaten Director Li?

"The Research Institute are famously protective of their own; if you really oppose those Central Earth people, do you think you can escape?"

Accompanied by the crisp sound of running water, the red-bearded man seemed to pour himself a glass of water, took a sip, then continued,

"You even have the guts to oppose He Ao, so why don’t you dare to go to Tia and kill Hu Wen to take his place? Seriously, you seem like you’ve changed into a different person.

"Cough—We’re still in time if we run now before things blow up."

During the conversation, the red-bearded man coughed violently a few times, "Cough cough cough— Do you have any medicine for treating external wounds? Give me some; that f**king crazy woman really hit with such ferocity."

The flesh mountain man responded, followed immediately by a thud of footsteps. "Wait a moment, I’ll find it for you."

"Cough cough cough—sshh—"

The red-bearded man’s coughs mingled with the sounds of rummaging for items.

Soon, he inquired, "Do you have a toilet here? I drank too much water."

The rummaging stopped momentarily, then came the slow response, "How could there be a toilet in the middle of nowhere, we have a chamber pot in the corner."

"Alright," the red-bearded man slowly got up, followed by a curse, "f**k, why is your stuff so stinky, I’ll go outside."

As he spoke, accompanied by the sound of hurried footsteps and the creaking of the wooden door opening, the red-bearded man seemed to have stepped out of the hut.

Lin Chichi cautiously shrunk her body, took a few steps back, and hid behind a pile of grass behind the wooden hut.

The sounds of searching inside the house seemed to have sped up a bit.

"All these damn needles," came a cursing voice from the red-bearded man in the distance.

Right after that, hurried footsteps circled the hut and moved toward the back.

Lin Chichi slowly concealed her silhouette, watching as the red-bearded man walked out from the side of the hut.

The red-bearded man raised a hand to touch his head, "Why do I feel a bit dizzy?"

He walked to the edge of the forest and without stopping, headed straight into its depths.

After a brief hesitation, Lin Chichi carefully sneaked up from behind.

"That bastard definitely has something up his sleeve," she heard the red-bearded man mumbling as he walked, "If he doesn’t run, old chap here has to make a run for it, gonna go out and kill a few for some travel expenses... Why is my head spinning, am I losing too much blood?"

He apparently had no intention of just going to the toilet but was planning to escape directly.

As he spoke, his pace gradually slowed and came to a halt as he rubbed his head.

With his words, Lin Chichi had already crept up behind him, a sharp dagger sprang out from her palm, which she gripped tightly with the blade facing down.

The girl’s muscles tensed up at that moment. She did her best to control every inch of her muscles, making no sound, silently approaching the red-bearded man.

But just as her dagger was about to touch the nape of his neck, the red-bearded man seemed to sense something and immediately turned around, "Who’s there? Ah!—"

The sharp edge of the dagger hesitated not and plunged into his neck, followed by a slight twist.

Amidst the splatter of blood, the girl, without hesitation, withdrew the knife and stabbed it directly into the red-bearded man’s heart.

The red-bearded man stiffened, seemingly trying to struggle, but an intangible force enveloped his body, and quickly, his entire being turned to ash.

Feeling the power surging within her, the girl took a deep breath. This was the first time she had killed a real C-level.

The night wind blew through the leaves in the darkness, rustling, as Lin Chichi looked up to her side.

In the direction of the hut, a massive man like a mountain of flesh, was holding a dagger, staring at her somewhat blankly.

Evidently, this mountain of flesh was also here to kill.

Lin Chichi looked at the flesh mountain man, her lips curling into a slight smile as she gripped the dagger in her hand.

Just now, when the flesh mountain man and the red-bearded man were two against one, she knew she couldn’t win, which was why she looked for an opportunity to stealthily take out one of them.

And now, the flesh mountain man was looking at the girl, not hesitating to raise his dagger and charge straight at her.

Lin Chichi immediately raised her dagger to meet his charge.

With a crisp sound, the daggers collided.

And in that instant, an arm suddenly reached out from the belly of the flesh mountain man, reaching for Lin Chichi’s neck.

Lin Chichi quickly retreated, dodging the grab.

Immediately after, the hand swung through the air, and with it, a fleshy orb emerged entirely from the belly of the flesh mountain man, transforming into a blood-flesh puppet, charging toward Lin Chichi.

Lin Chichi raised her hand, ready to confront the puppet.

But at that moment, a presence arising from who-knows-where once again disturbed her thoughts.

That moment, without any hesitation, she immediately jumped towards the trees beside her.

Bone needles spraying like a rainstorm shot out from the hands of the flesh mountain man, piercing through the running blood-flesh puppet, and also nailing the very spot where Lin Chichi had just stood.

Had Lin Chichi been a fraction slower, it would have been she who was pierced.

"You’re quick on your feet."

The flesh mountain man turned to Lin Chichi—who was now leaning against a tree—sneered, and once again raised his hand, firing a dense barrage of bone needles.

Lin Chichi immediately leaped up into the tree.

The frenzied bone needles tore apart all the surrounding trees, and Lin Chichi’s figure vanished amidst the collapsing foliage.

Amidst the fallen trees and the scattering leaves, the flesh mountain man standing among them furrowed his brows slightly.

Then, something suddenly dawned on him, and he turned around.

The girl, with cheeks smeared with blood, had somehow already leapt behind him, her sharp dagger touching his neck.

As he turned to meet her gaze, the girl curled the corners of her mouth into a faint smile, then plunged the dagger straight into his neck.

The flesh mountain man immediately reacted, quickly retreating.

And as the girl attempted to drive the blade even deeper, the flesh mountain man’s neck’s flesh abruptly fell off, and then his body swiftly retreated backward, standing where Lin Chichi had just been.

And those pieces of flesh that had fallen off turned into wriggling little creatures in an instant, surrounding the girl and attacking her.

Lin Chichi raised her blade and pierced through one of the creatures.

Then, in her field of view, that creature slowly turned into dust.

In that instant, the girl’s eyes brightened.

At this time, the mountain of flesh man in front was continuously retreating, stripping flesh from his body and transforming it into flesh creatures, encircling the girl.

Without any hesitation, the girl charged toward the flesh creatures, stabbing through each one with her blade.

Following that, the flesh creatures turned to dust and vanished.

However, while Lin Chichi was dealing with the flesh creatures, the continuously "slimming" mountain of flesh man was relentlessly launching sneak attacks with bone needles.

But this time, the bone needles were not as dense as before, allowing Lin Chichi to dodge by continuously shifting her form.

Some of the bone needles grazed the girl’s arm, leaving a few blood marks, and some pierced through her thigh. The twisted flesh remaining on the bone needles instantly tried to invade her body, only to be shredded by the surging power within her.

Even so, the girl’s movements did not stop. She decisively slaughtered the flesh creatures one by one, relentlessly approaching the mountain of flesh man, who now had little flesh left and had returned to a normal body size.

The mountain of flesh man’s eyes widened, looking at the girl as if seeing a lunatic, lifted his knife and charged at the girl once again.

Short knife and small blade collided once more, but this time, the girl’s force exceeded the mountain of flesh man’s expectation, knocking his blade aside.

Then without hesitation, the girl thrust forward with her blade, piercing the mountain of flesh man’s forehead. Tiny metal fragments splattered out.

The mountain of flesh man’s body shuddered.

In that moment, the flesh creature that was first pierced by the bone needle suddenly stood up and attacked the girl from behind.

The girl immediately withdrew her blade and leaped aside, the flesh creature followed closely, and then she raised her small knife and slashed the pursuing flesh creature behind her.

Also in that moment, the mountain of flesh man’s body trembled again, dropping three flesh creatures, and then without hesitation, he darted backward into the depths of the forest like a cannonball.

Lin Chichi immediately lifted her small knife and swiftly dispatched the three flesh creatures.

But when she looked up, in the pitch-black forest, the mountain of flesh man was nowhere to be seen.

That guy... somehow ran even faster than the redhead man.

The girl coughed once, dabbing at her blood-red lips.

She hurried into the forest, searching in several directions, but found no sign or trace of the mountain of flesh man.

Clearly, he knew the terrain here and had prepared an escape plan.

Her strength had indeed increased, but the wounds she sustained were real, and the bone needle that penetrated her thigh was affecting her speed.

It seemed she could not catch up now.

The good news was that she had finally mastered what the teacher had taught her.

At the edge of the silent forest, a figure rushed out of the dense trees, racing towards the mountains ahead in the darkness.

"These Central Earth people are truly insane, nearly getting killed by that damn brat."

The figure took a deep breath, but his movements didn’t pause for a second.

In that instant, he collided with a dark stream of light.

The harsh collision made his body stiffen, hurling his torso backwards, and his chest flesh ripped open instantly.

Tiny metal fragments sprinkled in the moonlight, falling to the ground.

He struggled to stand, looking at the black light that had hit him, which seemed to be an open ’Coffin’?

Also in that instant, an exquisite and nearly flawless hand pierced through his body from behind, grasping something from inside him.

A bunch of metal parts mingled with flesh.

Then another hand reached out and tore the man’s body apart from behind.

Metal parts splashed around in the moonlight as they scattered.

The still animate head of the man opened and closed its mouth chaotically, twisting its head to look at the figure behind it, but it only got halfway before losing all life.

Placing the broken ’corpse’ on the ground.

The female automaton bent down, looking at the metal parts that filled the ’Flesh Doctor’s’ backbone almost perfectly ’growing’ together with the flesh, forming this body.

The severed head on the ground was completely still, like a broken machine, its neck not extending blood vessels but metal wires intertwined with flesh.

This too was an automaton, a puppet made of flesh and metal.